Apparatus for manufacture of slide fasteners



June 17, 1952 M. NORKIN 2,600,677

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURE OF SLIDE FASTENERS Filed Aug. 5, 1946 2 SHEETS-SHEET l INVENTOR MORE/s NOAKIA/ AATORNEY June 17, 1952 M. NORKIN 2,600,677

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURE OF SLIDE FASTENERS Filed Aug. 5, 1946 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 k FIG. 4 A8 00 W INVENTOR MORE/5 IVORK/IV BY 2y g A ORNEY Patented June 17, 1952 APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURE OF SLIDE FASTENERS Morris N orkin, New York, N. Y.

Application August 3, 1946, Serial No. 688,231

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for manufacturing slide fasteners. More particularly the invention is concerned with an apparatus and method of the character described wherein a wire is formed by a rolling mill into a shape consisting of a series of integrally connected slide fastener elements and then is fed into an attaching machine where successive elements are cut off and clamped at spaced intervals to a tape.

It is an object of my invention to provide an apparatus and method of the character described in which the rolling mill and rolling dies have much longer lives than those presently used.

It is another object of my invention to provide an apparatus and method of the character described which save space, time and material.

A feature of my invention relates to the specific construction of the rolling mill and die and is to provide a rolling mill and die roll capable of running for very long periods of time Without having to replace the die rolls and which, even when stopped for such replacement can have new rolls accurately set up in an extremely short period of time.

With respect to this last named feature, it is another object of my invention to provide a rolling die which enables a second series of im-- pressions to be quickly substituted for a worn series of impressions without replacing the rolling die.

It is yet another object of my invention to provide a rolling mill of very sturdy construction, which is economical to make and use, and is extremely accurate in operation.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and in part hereinafter pointed out.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and of which the scope of application will be indicated'in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a schematic side view of an apparatus constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective broken-away view of a portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 and is explanatory of the construction of the slackcontrolled switch which governs the operation of the rolling mill;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the rolling mill shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view through said mill, the same being taken substantially along the axes of rotation of the rolling dies;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of the machine in the vicinity of the rolling dies;

Fig. 6 is a side view of the machine in the same vicinity;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 1-1 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially along the line 8-8 of Fig. 7; and

Fig. 9 is a highly enlarged sectional view taken through the rolling dies at the point where the wire is coined.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, I have there illustrated a machine [0 for manufacturing slide fasteners, said machine consisting of a rolling mill I2, an attaching machine l4 and a means It intermediate said mill and said attaching machine for controlling the operation of the mill so as to obtain synchronization between the mill and attaching machine.

The attaching machine may be of conventional construction such, for example, as that shown, described and claimed in my United States Letters Patent No. 2,385,836, issued October 2, 1945, for Apparatus and Method for Manufacturing Slide Fasteners.

The rolling mill is supplied with plain wire l8 of any commercial cross-section (e. g. round or rectangular) from a reel 20 of wire suitably mounted for rotation, as for instance, on a pair of cradle bearings 22. After the wire has been coined in the rolling mill it emerges therefrom as what is known in the art as element wire 24, the same consisting of a series of slide fastener elements all of whose jaws point in the same direction with the jaws of each element spread and astride the head of the preceding element and with no scrap between adjacent elements. Such element wire is clearly shown and described in my Patent No. 2,385,836. It may be mentioned that although the wire illustrated in said patent has straight longitudinal edges, if desired my invention can be practiced with wire having serrated longitudinal edges, as shown in United States Letters Patent No. 2,221,740, issued November 12, 1940, to Frederick Ulrich for Manufacture of Slide Fastener Elements. It also should be mentioned that it is within the scope of my invention, although not a preferred form, to employ element wire like that seen in Wintritz Patent No. 2,201,068 in which scrap is present between adjacent elements.

The element wire 24 runs directly from the rolling mill 2 to the attaching machine M in which successive elements are sheared from the front end of the wire in a manner well known to the art and clamped at spaced intervals along the beaded edge of a fabric tape. Inasmuch as the wire is fed directly from the rolling mill to the attaching machine, the elements are coined with their spread legs foremost, i. e., in a general direction pointing toward the attaching machine or in the direction of wire travel.

The rolling mill and attaching machine may be driven from any suitable source of power. Preferably, however, they are driven electrically, and desirably by separate electric motors, although a common source of electric energy is preferred. The attaching machine is arranged to be operated continuously throughout the working day, that is to say, the motor for the attaching machine is constantly turning, as is the main drive shaft of the machine. However, as is common knowledge in the field, certain parts of the machine, as for instance the element wire feeding means, may be intermittently rendered ineffective to form the usual gap between groups of attached elements on the tape. Therefore, although the attaching machine is continuously driven, it will not consume element wire at a uniform rate.

The rolling mill is synchonized with the attaching machine in such manner that its average rate of output of element wire during the course of the day is equal to the average rate of consumption of element wire by the attaching machine. This may be accomplished in various mannersfor example, by regulating the speed of the rolling mill so as to coin element wire at a uniform rate equal to the average rate at which the element wire is consumed by the attaching machine. Alternately, the rolling mill may be driven at a fluctuating speed whose average is equal to the average at which the element wire must be fed into the attaching machine,

the rolling mill being driven faster at periods of time during which the attaching machine consumes wire and being driven slower during the periods when the element wire feeding means is inactive. Still another system, and the one shown herein, is to so arrange the attaching machine and rolling mill that a small excess supply of the element wire, optionally in the form of slack, is present between the rolling mill and attaching machine, and to intermittently-operate the rolling mill, the same being actuated when the supply of slack has reached a certain predetermined minimum amount and deenergized when the supply of slack reaches a predetermined maximum amount.

To this end, the rolling mill is driven by an electric motor 25 supplied with power from a source 28 of electric energy through lead wires 30, 32 in one of which a switch 34 is inserted. Said switch consists of a mercury envelope 36, containing a pool 38 of mercury. A pair of spaced electrodes 4i sealed in the envelope at ,an end thereof are series-connected in the lead wire 32.

This switch is rotatably supported by a bolt 42 secured to a block 43 on the frame 44 of the rolling mill adjacent the wire exit side. Said block also rotatably carries a shaft 45 which is parallel to the bolt 42 and has a radially projecting arm 46 on which a slack sensing member such as a roll 4"! is mounted. The arm '46 is connected by a cross-bar 48 to a strap 63 provided with two tapped openings through which screws 50, 52 are threaded, the strap is so disposed that said screws 58, 52 are located above portions of the switch 34 on different sides of the bolt 42. Optionally the two screws may be disposed at a slight angle with respect to one another for a reason which will soon be apparent.

The shaft 45 extends horizontally in a direction transverse to the general direction of feed of the element wire from the rolling mill to the attaching machine, and the roller 41 swings in an arc intersecting the path of travel of wire so that said roller can lie on top of the wire between the mill and machine and its position accurately reflect the amount of slack. When the roller drops sufficiently far the forward screw 52 will bear against the forward end of the switch 34 causing the switch to tilt to such an extent that the pool of mercury will flow away from between the two contacts thus stopping the rolling mill motor. The slack will then be taken up by continued operation of the attaching machine causing the screw 52 to rise clear of the switch and the screw 50 to descend toward the back end of the switch. The switch, however, remains stationary as it is frictionally mounted on the bolt 62. When the screw 59 abuts against the backend of the switch it will tilt the switch to closed position.

Thus the two screws will determine the maximum and minimum amount of slack and adjustment thereof can be employed to regulate the two extremes of the slack.

The angle between the two screws is approximately equal to the angle through which the arm 46 moves from a position of maximum to a position of minimum slack in order that said screws will be approximately perpendicular to the switch when they bear against the same (subject to regulation of said angle by adjustment of the screws) It will be obvious that during the time the rolling machine operates its coins element wire at a speed greater than that at which the wire can be used by the attaching machine so that simultaneous operation of the mill and machine will cause an increase in the amount of slack.

The above arrangement has many advantages, chief among which is the saving in material effected by eliminating storage of reeled up element wire. The arrangement also permits economy in the use of floor space since the rolling mills may be made quite small, as soon will be seen, and take up but a fraction of the space required for the stored reels and the stands on which the reels are set when fed into the attaching machines.

I have also found that rollin mills run in synchronism with attaching machines in the manner above described last a great deal longer than rolling mills which are continuously operated all day long. I believe this longer life of the rolling mill is due to the fact that rolling mills run in synchronism with attaching machines are run at a slower speed than rolling mills run independently of the attaching machines and therefore the rolling dies heat up less, and to the fact that a rolling mill run intermittently has an even lower operating temperature. It is to be understood that by longer life I mean longer effective life, that is, that a rolling mill used as set forth above will make many more feet of element wire than will a rolling mill which is run independently of attaching machines. In actual practice I have found that rolling mills used in synchronism with attaching machines have a life fifteen times, or more, greater than that of rolling mills run independently of attaching machines.

It will also be appreciated that rolling mills which feed directly into attaching machines save both time and labor since the reels need not be taken away to storage after coining and then brought back to be set up each time that a supply roll for the attaching machine is exhausted.

Although, as already indicated, the foregoing process may be practiced satisfactorily with any kind of rollin mill in so far as the synchronous operation of the rolling mill and attaching machine is concerned, pursuant to my invention I employ a rolling mill [2 such as shown in Figs. 3-9, because this machine has an unusually sturdy construction and can be operated for great lengths of time without stopping for replacement of the die rolls or for repair.

Said machine l2 comprises a table 44 consisting of a pair of side supports 54, 56 and a top 58. The top serves as a base for carrying a pair of main back and front lower solid journal blocks 60, 62 and a secondary journal 64 for the lower roll shaft 65 which has affixed thereto a driving gear 68. Said gear meshes with the output pinion of a gear reduction box 12 driven by the electric motor 26. The main lower journal blocks 60, 62 are spaced apart a distance sufficient to accommodate the rolling dies and the locating and clamping mechanisms associated therewith. Both blocks may have bushings 14, such as brass sleeves, in which the shaft 66 is journaled. Each block 60, 62 supports an upper main journal block 16, T8, in which an upper roll shaft 80 is journalled. Said upper blocks, like the lower blocks 69, 62, may employ bushings 82 as the active bearing members and the upper blocks likewise are spaced apart to accommodate the rolling dies. It is pointed out that with shafts journalled on both sides of the rolling dies, the stresses in the shafts and bearings are far less than in the overhung or cantilever type of shaft support shown in Wintritz 2,201,058, thus obtaining a longer length of shaft and bearing life which means longer periods of operation between major breakdowns. Such construction also enables the dies to be more accurately held in position during operation, thus assuring better uniformity in the thickness of the element wire.

The shafts 65, 80 have secured thereon for rotation therewith die rolls 84, 86 in the form of steel cylinders each having a central bore snugly but slidably fitted on a die receiving portion 88 of one of the shafts. Inasmuch as. with the exception of the driving gear 68, both shafts and their affiliated equipment are similar, only the shaft 66 will be described in detail. The die roll 84 is abutted against a collar 90 in one piece with the shaft 68 and is held in such position by a nut 92 threaded on a screw portion 94 of the shaft. The bore in the die roll is large enough to clear the tips of the screw thread, and the front part 95 of the shaft is of reduced diameter to allow the nut 92 to be slipped over the shaft and brought up to the screw portion. The collar 99 has a pin 96 extending parallel to the shaft 66 and adapted to snugly fit into a matching socket 91 in the die roll 84 so that the roll shaft and die roll will turn together. The portion of the shaft in back of the collar functions as the rear journal and immediately behind it is another screw portion 98 located outside of the back lower journal block. Said screw portion receives spanner lock nuts I00, I02, which are tightened sufficiently to prevent end play of the shaft, a steel washer I64 being interposed between the lock nuts and the rear lower journal block to take up wear.

The roll shafts have identical pinions I06, I08 keyed thereto, said pinions being in mesh so that the die rolls will be driven in opposite directions and at exactly the same speeds. Both the upper and lower journal blocks at the front and rear of the mill are held down to the top 58 by four large bolts H0 passing through openings in the bearing blocks and screwed into tapped apertures in the top.

Means may be provided to locate the bearing blocks and particularly the front bearing blocks in predetermined position with respect to the table and each other. Such means, as illustrated herein, consists of a key Hi embedded in the top 58 under the rear lower block and a similar key H2 embedded in the top beneath the front lower block 62, each key being snugly received in a matching slot H3 in the block. Each top block carries two or more pendent metal pins H4 snugly fitted into matching bores H5 in the upper surface of the associated lower bearing blocks. This arrangement is of great assistance in making certain that the front bearing blocks are properly positioned when the die rolls have to be changed because of breakage or Wear. The foregoing arrangement allows a new set of die rolls to be quickly set up without adjustment axially angularly of the shafts, the fixed position of the collars negating the necessity of making an axial adjustmentand the definite relative angular relationship of the pins 96 on the collars negating the necessity of making an angular adlustment.

The die rolls themselves are accurately made in such fashion that the coining impressions on every roll are in certain spaced axial relationship to the face of the roll which bears against the collar and in certain angular relationship with respect to the socket of the roll which receives the pin 96. These impressions are otherwise conventional. Each die roll carries a series of such impressions negatively matching the desired configuration to be imparted to the element wire. As is usual, one die roll, e. g., the upper die roll 58, carries the female impressions and the other die roll 84 has the male impressions. Said impressions can be formed in any suitable manner, for instance, by the method and apparatus disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,318,445 is cliid on May l, 1943, to George Wintritz for Method and Apparatus for Making Die Rolls, or that shown and claimed in my application Serial No. 615,828 for Method and Apparatus for Generating Rolling Dies, filed September 12, 1945.

Shims S may be inserted between the upper and lower bearing blocks to obtain variations in the thickness of the element wire.

Inasmuch as the rolling mill feeds directly into the attaching machine, it is highly essential that the rolling mill be stopped as little as possible. However, die rolls have notoriously short lives, particularly when substitute materials, such for example as aluminum or plated steel, are used for the element wire and it is necessary to fre quently. sometimes even as often as once a day, change the impressions being used. Pursuant to a feature of my invention 1' enable impressions to be changed in a very short period of time and without necessarily replacing the die rolls every time such a change is made. I accomplish this desirable object by providing each die roll with a multiplicity of axially spaced series of impressions. For instance, as illustrated herein, each die roll has formed thereon two series of impressions, that is to say, the upper die roll carries two series of axially spaced female impressions and the male die roll two series of the male impressions havin the same axial spacing. It may .be mentioned that such plural series of impressions can be made at a very low cost and with a high degree of accuracy by the use of the method .and apparatus shown, described and claimed in my aforesaid copending application Serial No. 615,828.

Both of these series of impressions in the upper and lower die rolls are constantly in exact axial and angular registration so that if the wire is fed into either one of the matching series of impressions, said wire will be coined and will emerge on the exit side of the machine in the desired shape of element wire. Means therefore is provided to feed the wire into either one of the plural matching sets of impressions. Such means comprises a wire guide H in the form of a metal finger II? whose forward end is tapered, as best seen in Fig. '7, in order to enable the tip of the finger to be disposed between the rolls and reach almost to the point of tangency thereof. The upper surface of said finger has a channel H8 provided therein to slidably receive the wire l8, the width of said channel being slightly in excess of the diameter of the wire. The channel is relatively shallow throughout the major portion of its length, except near the tip of the finger where the channel extends all the way down from the top to the bottom surface of the finger, thereby bifurcating the tip of the finger and permitting the resulting pair of legs to be resiliently urged toward each other by means of Allen head screws II9. This adjustment enables the sides of the channel to be brought together to exactly match the diameter of the wire so that the position of the wire as it is fed into the rolls can be controlled with a high degree of accuracy.

Means also is provided to shift the wire feed guide axially of the roll shafts, thereby to determine which set of matching impressions will be used for the coining operation. Such last named means includes a bar I20 having a groove I22 adjacent an end thereof into which the back end of the finger III fits and is held by screws I24. The bar is provided with a pair of slots I26 adjacent its other end, said slots extending in a direction lengthwise of the bar and passing bolts I28 screwed into tapped apertures in the lower front bearing block 82. The exact position of the finger, and hence of the wire being fed into the machine, can be set by axially moving the bar I20 after the bolts I28 have been released.

A wire exit guide I30 similar to the feed guide just described is employed at the emergent side of the roll die. This guide, however, need not have the Allen head screws to exactly position freshly coined wire inasmuch as the location thereof is not highly critical. Nevertheless, this guide does include means for adjustment axially of roll shafts so that the element wire may be held in approximately the correct position.

Usual auxiliary equipment, such as vertical and horizontal wire straighteners I32, I34 and an entering guide pulley I36 may also be included in the machine.

It may be mentioned that, in reality, both the male and female impressions are very tiny, as many as one hundred and fifty or more being present in each series of impressions on a die roll having a diameter of about two inches, this being a size of die roll which I have found satisfactory. Since such small size does not readily lend itself to illustration, in Figs. 3-7 I have exaggerated the sizes of the impressions for the purpose of illustration. However, in Fig. 9 I have shown the impressions in approximately their true size with respect to the rolls and to the wire.

It will thus be seen that I have provided an apparatus and method for manufacturing slide fasteners which achieve the several objects of my invention and are well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter hereinabove described or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A rolling mill comprising a base, a pair of vertically registered horizontal roll shafts, bearings near one set of ends of the shafts and carried by the base to rotatably support said shafts over one another in parallelism, means adjacent said set of ends of said shafts to interconnect said shafts for joint rotation in opposite directions at the same angular rate of rotation, a pair of vertically stacked bearing blocks, bolts extending through both blocks to the base for detachably attachng said blocks jointly to the base in a position spaced from the bearings, said blocks having the other set of ends of the shafts journalled therein, a tubular roll die supported on each shaft between the bearings and the bearing blocks, keying means to position said blocks in certain relationship to the base and to each other with respect to a line which is transverse to the plane connecting said shafts, a collar integral with each shaft and located adjacent the bearings, each collar having fixed thereto a pin, said pin being located on the side of the collar remote from the bearings and extending parallel to the shafts, each roll die including a socket spaced from the center of the die a distance equal to the radial spacing between the center of the pin and the center of the associated shaft, said sockets being dimensioned to snugly receive said pins, each collar serving as an abutment member for its associated tubular die, said pins serving to locate the dies in predetermined fixed positions angularly on the shafts whereby each die occupies a predetermined angular and axial position with respect to its shaft and to the other die when the dies are mounted on the shafts abutting against the collars with the pins in the sockets, means detachably engaging each shaft for pressing each die against its associated collar, said means being located between a die and a block whereby each die is removably secured to its shaft and can be slipped off the end of the shaft when the blocks and shaft engaging means are removed, each die having a series of impressions circumferentially disposed around the same with the impressions in predetermined axial and angular relationship on the die so that the impressions on the two dies will be in predetermined mutual operative relationship when secured, without adjustment,

2. A rolling mill as set forth in claim 1 wherein Number each die has at least two series of identical im- 192,392 pressions, each series of impressions on one die 511,422 beng registered with a different series of impres- 648,915 sions on the other die, wherein a single guide is .5 1,094,218 provided to lead material between said dies to the 1,307,125 bite of one series of impressions, and wherein 2,069,429 means is provided bodily to move said guide in a 2,201,068 direction parallel to the axes of rotation of the ,245,031 dies from the bite of one series of impressions to is 2,320,651 that of another series. 2,335,626

MORRIS NORKIN. 2,356,783 2,437,793 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the N b file of this patent: 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2:347 Number Name Date 138,499 Huggett May 6, 1873 go 

